Uncle Qrow
by FollowedByArmedLunatics
Summary: His life is hunting, surrounded by Grimm. His life is traveling, surrounded by strangers. His life is homecomings, even the warmest of which are surrounded by a cloud of secrets, grief, and misfortune. In a life as lonely as his, there's nothing more wonderful in the world than two little girls who are always excited to see him. Ruby, Yang, and Qrow one-shots.


Landing Strategy

Yang walked confidently through the forest surrounding her house, surveying the trees expertly, and completely ignoring the red-hooded girl trailing along behind her.

"If you just tell me what you're looking for, I could help," Ruby said, growing exasperated. Her cape had gotten snagged on branches more times than usual on this trip into the woods, and they were a bit further out than their dad would approve of.

Yang continued to move from tree to tree, looking each up and down before frowning and moving to the next.

"Yang…" Ruby started to whine, pulling her foot from a particularly squelchy patch of mud.

Suddenly, Yang stopped. "This one," she declared.

Ruby looked at the tree Yang had selected. It was one of the thickest and tallest in the wood. "This one what?" she asked.

"This is the one we're going to climb," said Yang, "all the way to the top."

Ruby, her annoyance with the sister completely forgotten under a rush of excitement, hurried to Yang's side. "Really?"

"Really," Yang confirmed, smiling. "Here, I'll get you started." Yang cupped her hands together in front of her and Ruby eagerly stepped into them. Holding Yang's head for balance (but being very careful not to grab and pull out any hair) Ruby was hoisted up to where she could grab hold of the lowest branch. She stepped out of Yang's hands and began to climb on her own.

"This one's really high, Yang," Ruby said, looking down at the receding ground.

"Don't worry, I'm right behind you," said Yang, following her sister up the tree.

Bolstered by Yang's assurances, young Ruby Rose took on the most ambitious tree climb of her life so far. Every so often she would look back down to the ground, but every time she would see Yang, smiling at her from just a few steps below, and she would carry on.

It was indeed one of the tallest trees around, and by the time Ruby got to the top she couldn't even see the ground anymore. All she could see was the tops of the other trees spreading for miles in all directions.

"Wow," she said breathlessly as she settled onto a branch.

"It's neat, isn't it?" Yang said, sitting down on the branch beside her.

"I can't even see our house anymore!"

"It's right over…" Yang twisted on her perch, looking around, "…there!"

Ruby's eyes followed Yang's finger. Sure enough, she could just make out pieces off their roof through the leafy branches.

Ruby giggled. "It looks so small from up here."

"Yeah, you can see almost the whole island from up here," Yang said, swinging her legs carelessly. "But that's not why I brought you up here."

"Then why?" Ruby asked.

"Because…" Yang paused for dramatic effect, "we're going to do some training."

Ruby's eyes became large and round as she filled to the brim with anticipation. "Training?"

Of course, Ruby and Yang had been "training" ever since Ruby had been old enough to stand and hold a tree branch sword without falling over. Whether it was pretend fighting with each other or nagging their parents and uncle to show them real fighting moves, "training" had been a huge part of the aspiring huntresses lives from an early age. It was only recently that Yang had started at Signal, and every night when she came home Ruby would beg her to show what she had learned that day. Ruby was so jealous and counting down the days until she was old enough to go to Signal too.

"That's right," said Yang, "you have to practice something really important."

"Tell me, tell me!" Ruby said.

"You have to practice your landing strategy."

"My what now?"

"Your landing strategy. It's a very important part of being a huntress," said Yang.

"So…what is it?"

"Well, sometimes when you're fighting, you end up really high off the ground…"

"Why?" Ruby interrupted.

"I don't know. Maybe you're fighting on the wing of a ship," said Yang. "Or maybe the Grimm you're fighting is tall and you have to climb a ledge to reach it. Or maybe you're fighting a giant Nevermore and you have to be launched it the air to hit it. The point is sometimes you're up high and then you're falling. Now if you just let yourself fall, you'll hit the ground super hard and use up all your Aura. That's why you need a landing strategy. You need to figure out a way to slow yourself down and land on your feet so you can jump right back into the action."

"That makes sense," said Ruby. "How do I learn a landing strategy?"

"Well, practice makes perfect," said Yang.

"What do you…"

Without warning, Yang grabbed Ruby and shoved her off the branch.

"AHHHH!" Ruby yelled as she fell.

"Don't yell! Strategize!" Yang called after her, watching her sister bouncing off the branches as she descended.

"Ow! Ow! Pointy! OW! Oh no! No! YANG! Ow! My hood! ACK! No!" _THUD!_

Thus ended the first attempted landing of Ruby Rose.

Yang followed her down more expertly, grabbing the branches and swinging, using her legs to bounce between the trees. Ruby's hood was hanging on a branch not far from ground, and Yang grabbed it on her way. Her final landing was still a bit rocky, but she felt good about how much she had improved since the first time she was pushed out of a tree.

"Well, you didn't land on your feet," Yang said, as she walked over to Ruby and offered her the hood, "but that was pretty good for a first time."

Ruby looked up at her, tears welling in her eyes.

"Ruby! What's wrong? Are you hurt?" asked Yang.

Ruby shock her head. "No, I'm not hurt," she said as she got to her feet and brushed off her skirt. "But I hit a bird."

"What?" said Yang.

"I hit a bird," Ruby repeated miserably, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I hit a bird on the way down. I hit it in the air and then I think I smashed against it on a tree I hit. I think I killed it, Yang."

"Oh Ruby," Yang said, pulling her sniffling little sister into her arms, "it's okay. It was an accident. It happens sometimes. And maybe it's not dead. Maybe it fell somewhere nearby. Maybe we can find it and take it back to the house and patch it up."

Ruby sniffed. "You think?"

"Yeah," Yang said. She pulled back and draped Ruby's cape back over her shoulders. "What did the bird look like?"

"It was black," said Ruby. "All black with red eyes."

"Well, let's look around for it," said Yang. "Here, birdie birdie! Where are you, birdie?"

Ruby and Yang circled the big tree looking for the injured bird.

Meanwhile, not very far away, Taiyang was in his yard chopping wood when a rustling noise caught his attention. He turned to see Qrow staggering out of the wood, looking very disheveled, even by Qrow standards, and somehow…flattened.

"The hell happened to you?" Taiyang asked. "I thought you were watching the girls."

Qrow slumped to the ground against a tree. With one hand he fished in his pocket for his flask, with the other he pointed accusingly at Tai. "This is all your fault," he growled.

"Me, what did I do?" asked Tai.

Qrow took a long draw from his flask. "Those girls might have gotten their eyes from their moms, but they got all of their stupid from you."


End file.
